Saturday, July 14, 2012

Got all the rugs cut apart and hemmed. I really like the machine hem on the rugs. Think I will just weave a header that is just a bit wider from now on. They are 27 inches wide and I think 25 really should be plenty. I will have to warp from scratch next time so will do a different set up. Usually spend my Sunday afternoons weaving and listening to the radio behind the loom. I like the Sunday NPR station that has that guy, Garrison Keillor from Lake Wobegon. He is pretty funny.

Don't know if I have put this picture on here before, but I just crack up when I see it so now here it is again.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Last PM I finished off the 24 feet of warping I had on the loom. Ended up with 4 good size rugs and one small one. Could barely weave at the end as this roll was so large. Good thing I didn't put any more warp on the loom. So this is my rug roll. All rugs done end to end with that green stuff hanging out that is the filler. The next picture is the rugs rolled out but not cut apart! Whoooo Hoooo!

The last pic was taken from the other end. Now I just hope I put enough filler between each rug, cause I will have to cut them apart to put on the sewing machine to stitch and hem the ends. Did I mention that it measured about 21 foot of actual rug in all. Someone in the store asked about me making a hall runner. Bring it on!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

I think I have mentioned that I write a column monthly for a little local paper. So since this blog is supposed to be about my books and crafting, I thought I should throw in some book stuff. This was a book that I really enjoyed, so will share my review here.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

by Jamie Ford

Now this is a book well worth reading and one of those keepers that you want to share with your family and friends. I do enjoy a good historical novel that teaches me something that I didn't know about our history as Americans or just citizens of the world.

This book is a debut novel by Jamie Ford. I hope he continues to write. The main character is a Chinese gentleman named Henry Lee. He is present when the Panama Hotel in Seattle Wa. is opened after being boarded up many years. He sees a Japanese parasol that he recognizes. This sends the reader back and forth from when Henry was 12 years old in 1942 to the present of 1986.

When he was 12 his father enrolled him in white school under a “scholarship” which I felt was more like a work program, so he could get his education and work in the kitchen. He was bullied by white boys but would not tell his father as he was supposed to be getting an “American” education, even though he was born in America.

He finds a friend in a Japanese girl named Keiko and this was a forbidden subject at home as China was at war with the Japanese at this time. (As you are probably know, when Japan attached Pearl Harbor the US the Japanese Americans, many second generation were rounded up and interred in camps.) Through the black outs, raids, and long standing prejudices of their old worlds, a sweet innocent love develops. When Keiko seems lost to him forever, Henry grows up, the war ends, and he marries and has a son. Henry has many regrets and struggles with his relationship with his son, not wanting to be like his own father. As the story went back to his childhood memories you could feel how he struggled to be his own person and yet honor his own Chinese roots. Of course you have to read the book to see how it ends, I don't want to spoil that.

The author is a great grandson of a Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from China in 1865, where he took the western name Ford. Jamie Ford is half Chinese and grew up near Chinatown in Seattle. There really was a Chinatown and Japanese town in Seattle and at hotel named the Panama Hotel. And of course there really was a war and the interment of thousands of Japanese people, who lost all they had by the time the war ended.

I always like to find where the title comes from and you will find it in this terrific book. From the back cover: “This is a beautifully written book that will make you think. And, more important, it will make you feel.”

Friday, July 6, 2012

When I warped the loom this last time, I thought I was being pretty smart and saving time by tying onto the old warp on the loom. Here is a picture of it in progress.

I just kept the old warp ends (blue) on the loom and tied the new warp ends to them, then giggled the knots thru the reeds and heddles. Then when I started to crank it all onto the back beam I noticed some loose ends. OOPS! So I figured it out and was able to tie some extra ends in, and again thought I was pretty clever. Well after I got the warp all beamed and started weaving my filler, I noticed 2 more spaces that were blank. OOPS! So I had to tie new ends onto the filler and now have 2 strands dangling from the beam with weights on them and you know what? It all weaves beautifully! I totally missed at least 6 strands when I did that easy tie up. Not sure if I will do this again or just go from scratch and thread it all thru, but that is a back breaker for me. I will try to leave longer ends next time if I want to do this tie on again. Oh, and I am warping front to back now and have it down pretty good to keep good tension. The warp laying down over the front beam onto the floor gets all combed out smooth then sections are clipped together with big paper clips, then I lay a short length of a 2x4 across it as a weight. As I crank it all goes on smoothly till I have that yard taken up. Well it works for me and I guess we all do things that work for us and make us happy. Here is the end results before I found the 2 missing spots. :)

Thursday, July 5, 2012

I keep seeing ideas that I think I just have to try! I will get the loom set up and weave awhile, then I get lost at my sewing table and ironing board with things to sew. Working on several denim totes and denim aprons. Now I want to learn how to make the big gaudy fabric flowers to decorate with. Guess I will google those words and see what I get. Here is my current weaving, it is recycled sweaters and some cotton selvage that I ordered a few years ago. I like it with the pastels of the sweaters. Makes nice bathroom rugs.
Well that picture was supposed to be down here but guess I will leave it alone.
Hope everyone is keeping cool. I am, of course I have the air on and a fan blowing on me, here in my little store.